Residents reap fruits of 10-year transformation
August is the month of promise for farmers in the county of Metog in the southeast of the Tibet autonomous region, because it’s harvest time for produce such as tea and banana.
In the township of Deshing, Kunsang Lhamo, a female farmer, was busy collecting tea leaves.
“Our tea products have now been sold to regions including Sichuan, Guangdong and Beijing,” Kunsang Lhamo said.
The woman said it would be unimaginable to see Metog’s produce in markets across the rest of the country some 10 years ago, when the county had no access to roads that linked it to the outside.
The first highway connecting Metog and the urban center of Nyingchi, a city administered by the county, was completed and operational in October 2013. This has, according to Kunsang Lhamo, brought revolutionary changes to the landlocked county — booming commerce, a growing number of tourists and rapidly increasing revenues for residents.
Over the past 10 years, Tibet has seen rapid development in the construction of transport facilities, with roads reaching even the most remote.
Road construction is only one aspect of the flourishing infrastructure development in Tibet, which also includes power grids, communication networks and environmental protection facilities.
Tsangpa, a resident in Tashigang, a township in Lhaze county in the city of Shigatse, is a farmer who operates a cattle farm. He said his dream was to modernize his dairy business by owning machines for forage grass harvesting and dairy production.
This dream was finally realized when his village was connected to the regional power grid in 2020.
“We used to rely on power supply from our family-owned photovoltaic panels,” Tsangpa said. “This could only ensure several hours of illumination at night, let alone powering farming machines.”
He said this problem is now solved by the access to the newly built regional grid.
“Now that we have steady power supply for 24 hours a day, our family bought several machines for farming and dairy production,” Tsangpa said.
Over the past 10 years, Tibet has invested about 68.22 billion yuan ($9.88 billion) in building four major grids and other power transmission facilities in the rural areas, according to the autonomous region’s energy administration.
The administration said that a population of 3.45 million in Tibet’s 74 county-level regions had access to regional grids by the end of 2021. In comparison, the figure was 1.75 million at the end of 2012.
Like the development of the electricity industry, the construction of environmental protection facilities has also brought remarkable improvement to the lives of residents in Tibet.
Located at the heart of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the upper and middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River had been a victim of desertification and fragile ecological system for many centuries.
Wangchuk is a forest protection worker in the township of Samye in Dranang county, which is located in the middle reaches of Yarlung Zangbo.
He said his work is in a relatively new industry, because “there was no forest in my neighborhood decades ago”.
He recalled that his hometown used to suffer tremendously from desertification.
“There were always sandstorms in windy days,” he said. “Sand and dust would seep into your house even you shut all the doors and windows.”
Now, the middle reaches of the river are protected by a forest belt 100 miles long. Cash crops like grapes and apples have been planted near the forest belt, bringing additional revenues to the locals, according to Wangchuk.
Over the past 10 years, Tibet has implemented one of the strictest standards for environmental protection in China, with more than 50% of its land included in various protection schemes, according to the Tibet Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection.
The department added that the autonomous region has prioritized the development of environmentally friendly industries, including farming, clean energy and tourism.
Dorje Tsering, a university graduate, chose to return to his hometown in Doilungdechen district in Lhasa, the capital city of the autonomous region.
Capitalizing on the excellent local environment and rich ecological resources, Dorje Tsering established his own business for organic farming.
When talking about his decision to start a career in his hometown, he said local policies to encourage entrepreneurship among university students motivated him. Dorje Tsering also praised the local resources that are favorable for his business development plan.
“I attended a career and entrepreneurship coaching program in Doilungdechen before my graduation, where I was informed of the development trends and business opportunities in my home district,” Dorje Tsering said. “I was told then that there is a package of incentives in place to encourage entrepreneurship among graduates.”
Over the past 10 years, more than 31,700 university and college graduates have taken part in various entrepreneurship coaching programs in the autonomous region and nearly 8,000 of them have successfully established their own businesses, according to Dawa Tsering, deputy chief of the Tibet Department of Human Resources and Social Security.